Sunday, Dec 30, 2007
Expect a knock on effect for the housing market
Telegraph: High street chains may slip in 2008
Insolvency experts are on standby amid fears several high street retailers could collapse in January. Insolvencies are expected to pick up through January. "In many cases the banks have paid the rents to take these shops through the sales," said another executive.
This after a frenzy of spending in the last few days in the run up to Christmas - what are things going to be like by April 2008?
Posted by jack c @ 11:16 AM (549 views) Add Comment
11 Comments
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1. Maihem said...
Commercial rents will drop and business rates will go south with them as town centres try to encourage trade to stay. With lower fixed overheads, businesses will be able to increase their prices.
With living in England becoming rubbish, the bankers will take the wealth that they've been stealing from us to sunnier climes and give it to other people that haven't been working their butts off for the bankers' benefit. Having sold all their sterling, the pound will fall and the debtors will finally reap what they've sowed.
It is then, with increased prices and falling pound, that people ought to realise what they've done but they won't. They will think that the government has "made some inflation" and will call for a new government to pay for new street cleaning services to sweep up all the excess inflation that is gunking up the drains. I think they will also get confused and think that those white/black spots of chewing gum are some of that inflation stuff and ineffectually complain to their local councillors about it making the place look a mess. Meanwhile they will keep trying to borrow because two generations now have grown up where borrowing is the same as working, only much more fun.
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3. su said...
Shoes can be repaired; ripped & worn-out clothes can be turned into the latest fashion (remember the slashed jeans look!) so when your budget is tight these items are unlikely to be on your "must have" list. Food, drink, heating and shelter take priority. Maybe I should go and ask my Nan how she survived day-to-day living during the war.
4. alan said...
"High St chains MAY slip"
i thought it was a racing certainty
5. Jayk said...
Yes, but read the article. Hardly significant. Come back when we may lose some of the middle order, not a #11.........
6. su said...
"The Sunday Telegraph has learned that in a highly unusual step landlords have offered retailers discounts to their rent to prevent them from going bust."
Not looking like a prosperous new year for landlords either!
7. su said...
Slightly off topic but has anyone noticed that hpc house price predictions have been updated today?
8. Tiggerthetiger said...
Slightly off topic but has anyone noticed that hpc house price predictions have been updated today?
I have su and isnt it beginning to look so different from six months ago...even a few weeks ago come to that... !
9. drewster said...
The high street chains are suffering multiple onslaughts. Firstly, shops which sell well-defined goods (books, CDs, DVDs, electronics, white goods, brand-label clothing) are being killed off by the internet and by Tesco's. You can buy CDs from Amazon and Gucci clothes from eBay; all from the comfort of your home. As a result many high street shops now only sell quirky and unusual items; or they have been replaced with pasty bakeries and coffee shops instead. Secondly, higher inflation means people are spending more on food, petrol, and housing; this leaves less discretionary income to spend in the shops.
That said, the Christmas season will always be the best for the high street. You can't find quirky or unusual presents on Amazon or in Tesco's; and unreliable delivery times are a problem when the date of Christmas is fixed. Also a lot of men (women are far better) tend to shop at the last minute, so delivery times are problematic.
It won't be until we get figures for Q1 2008 that we'll see the real extent of the damage to high street shops. Those figures will come out in April; in the same month the CGT rules change; April 2008 will be an interesting month!
10. Orwell said...
Is Gordon going to be Teflon in all this?
11. su said...
"Firstly, shops which sell well-defined goods (books, CDs, DVDs, electronics, white goods, brand-label clothing) are being killed off by the internet and by Tesco's. You can buy CDs from Amazon and Gucci clothes from eBay; all from the comfort of your home"
Good point, Drewster, I forgot about the internet. But if you're not a standard shape or size and you need to try before you buy, where do you go when all these shops close? Mm, I suppose there's always "George" at Asda and the charity shops...